Qiagen (NYSE:QGEN) Short Interest Down 16.9% in April

Qiagen (NYSE:QGEN) saw a significant drop in short interest during the month of April. As of April 15th, there was short interest totalling 2,960,000 shares, a drop of 16.9% from the March 31st total of 3,560,000 shares. Currently, 1.3% of the shares of the company are sold short. Based on an average trading volume of 1,010,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 2.9 days.

Qiagen Stock Performance

Qiagen stock traded up $0.03 during trading on Tuesday, reaching $42.33. The company had a trading volume of 2,113,233 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,220,508. Qiagen has a 52 week low of $34.74 and a 52 week high of $47.70. The company has a current ratio of 1.99, a quick ratio of 1.62 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24. The firm has a market capitalization of $9.66 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.98, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.51 and a beta of 0.41. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $42.57 and its 200 day simple moving average is $42.69.

Qiagen (NYSE:QGEN) last posted its earnings results on Monday, April 29th. The company reported $0.46 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.44 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $459.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $453.91 million. Qiagen had a net margin of 17.37% and a return on equity of 12.99%. Qiagen’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.53 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts forecast that Qiagen will post 2.09 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in QGEN. Xponance Inc. boosted its holdings in Qiagen by 9.1% in the third quarter. Xponance Inc. now owns 9,356 shares of the company’s stock valued at $379,000 after purchasing an additional 780 shares during the period. Strs Ohio increased its position in shares of Qiagen by 14.6% during the third quarter. Strs Ohio now owns 45,441 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,840,000 after acquiring an additional 5,774 shares during the last quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. boosted its stake in Qiagen by 16.0% in the third quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 255,837 shares of the company’s stock valued at $10,361,000 after acquiring an additional 35,297 shares during the period. ING Groep NV grew its stake in Qiagen by 28.4% during the 3rd quarter. ING Groep NV now owns 257,392 shares of the company’s stock worth $10,424,000 after buying an additional 56,901 shares during the last quarter. Finally, First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. bought a new stake in Qiagen in the 3rd quarter valued at about $253,000. 70.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have issued reports on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on Qiagen from $50.00 to $52.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 8th. Citigroup cut their price objective on shares of Qiagen from $61.86 to $60.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 8th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upgraded Qiagen from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $49.48 to $51.00 in a research report on Friday, February 16th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Qiagen presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $51.69.

Qiagen Company Profile

QIAGEN N.V. offers sample to insight solutions that transform biological materials into molecular insights worldwide. The company provides primary sample technology consumables, such as nucleic stabilization and purification kits for primary sample materials, manual and automated processing for genotyping, gene expression, and viral and bacterial analysis, as well as silica membranes and magnetic bead technologies; secondary sample technology consumables, including kits and components for purification of nucleic acids from secondary sample materials; and instruments for nucleic acid purification and accessories.